


Rib Thief

by WhisperingWillows



Category: Welcome to Night Vale, wtnv
Genre: Carlos is a ticklish mess, Cecil is Mostly Human, Fluff, M/M, if Carlos is gonna stay late at work cecil’s gonna be a butt, self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 15:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20744294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhisperingWillows/pseuds/WhisperingWillows
Summary: It’s terribly easy to trick Carlos about new monsters coming to Nightvale, and after some neglect, Cecil is happy to take advantage of that.





	Rib Thief

“Carlos!”

A usual late day at the station and an unusually early day at the lab made the perfect setup. A start to an induced panic. Cecil burst through the door with his beloved’s name on his panicked tongue, and Carlos leaped to his feet just at the tone.

“What!? What’s wrong? What izzit now?” He wasn’t about to take a nap was he? Cecil almost felt bad hearing the drowsiness in his soft voice. Almost.

“Haven’t you listened to the broadcast today?”

Carlos’s tense shoulders slumped a bit in relief. “Ceec, I always do. It didn’t sound like there was anything wrong today. At least anything wrong and new—“

“Didn’t you stay tuned to the ciphers aired after?”

“I, ah, no? I normally stop listening once you’ve wrapped up, you know that.” Oh, he was back to concern, and Cecil fought a wry smile trying to creep on his face. Carlos could be so adorably naive.

Ceec paced around the living room, hands folded behind him and head bowed low in graveness. “Oh, honey, you really, really should’ve kept paying attention. He might’ve already gotten to you, you didn’t think to protect yourself!”

“From...who?”

“The Rib Thief. I’d call his motivations self explanatory.” 

Carlos after all the years he’d now spent in Nightvale had learned not to question the going-ons and secrets of the town (especially with prying eyes and ears all around), but there was some suspicion over today’s monster of the month. “You just made that up, didn’t you?”

“Of course not!” Cecil laid an offended hand over his chest. “How could you accuse me, the man responsible for giving government-mandated truths and information to our home, of making something up? Especially something so serious! I’m concerned he may have already gotten to you.”

“I think I’d know if I were missing my ribs...Why wouldn’t you just say so during the show, anyway?”

“Because he’s targeted me before, Carlos! I can’t anger him more than I have in the past, and no, he only takes one, replaces it with glass. You’d never know unless you got hurt! Shattered glass everywhere inside you, I can’t bear the thought!”

And the skepticism started to fade, as Carlos’s lips pursed in worry. Cecil’s heart skipped a beat, he was so cute.

“I need to count how many you have. My mother taught me how to tell the difference when I was young. It may not be too late.” He turned and planted his hands on his shoulders. A different sort of concern fluttered in Carlos’s gaze at the news.

“Is that necessary?”

“Absolutely. Sit down, we need to figure out what we’ll do next if you’ve had one replaced.”

Cecil was quick to plant himself on the couch, a silent way of saying ‘this is happening whether you like it or not’. 

“Yeah...Okay.” Carlos was doing his best not to sound or look nervous, but it shone brightly in the stone-footed way he joined his side, only to be abruptly pulled onto his husband’s lap. Cecil nearly lost his composure in the way he blushed. “Come on, I know this can’t be needed.”

“Nooo, but it does make it easier,” a little playfulness snuck out in his voice, but it seemed to be just enough to tip him off that something was wrong. Carlos tried to launch himself back to his feet, but a sudden tendril lashed tight around his middle and pulled him back. Oh, Cecil wasn’t hiding his wicked grin now.

“You must know this absolutely pains me, sweetheart, but I neeeed to know you’re okay! I’m sure you’d do the same for me~” 

“I...I really do feel fine! I came straight home after work, you know, didn’t talk with any strangers today, either—“

“I told you, you’d never know! Not unless you listened to and deciphered this ciphers, but you didn’t. You poor thing.”

He definitely caught on, by now, but it was too late. Cecil slowly pressed a sharp finger just under his left armpit, delighted by the way he tried to stifle a very unmanly squeak, and started to count. “Ooone, twooo, threeee…”

“You’re counting one at a time?” His voice was tainted with barely held back giggles. This was the plan all along. Carlos, sweet, adorable, mostly unassuming Carlos, was horribly ticklish. 

He’d been so busy lately with some new experiments and a new shipment of lab equipment on top of that...Being home before Cecil meant things had finally eased up at work for him, and he was overjoyed. He would be happy to hear all about it...after he offered a little revenge for all the loneliness he’d caused his hubby.

“You’re upset about it? Oh, hun, I just want to be as thorough about it as I can!” All while he spoke, his fingers still writhed against those three ribs. A steady stream of light laughter now eked out from his trapped victim. “And you should really stop squirming, you’re only making this more difficult. Fooour.”

No, no, no, he needed to get away—Carlos leaned as far as he could to the right to alleviate the sensitive pressure on his side, but those terrible fingers joined his other side and he couldn’t help but squeal.

“But maybe you’re right. Why put you through more than you need? Let me just catch up...Fiiive, siiix, seeeven—Oh!” Carlos jerked hard enough to break free of his grip, but there was no escape from the pinning tendril, which offered a slightly affectionate, slightly punishing squeeze at his escape attempt.

Cecil sighed. “Now I have to start all over again! Are you happy with yourself?” He teased. The jig was definitely up, but it was too late to do anything about it. 

“Did you know that I love you? And your eyes are very violet today, and your hair looks nice, and—“ Coherency dropped right over the edge into laughter. Ceec stopped bothering to count, electing instead just to dig right in to squeeze out those sweet sounds. 

“I love you, too.” This went on, a reprieve finally offered to admire his perfect, squeaky, flushed scientist...and to get hands under his shirt, totally forgoing the fib he told to get him here and brutally attacking the dark, sensitive skin just under his ribcage.

“Ceec—Ah! Nonono!” He kicked and flailed his legs recklessly as though it could protect him. Not like he could do much else. He hadn’t thought of the way his head had tilted to the side, and—

Cecil, ever the opportunist, leaned down and blew a raspberry against the exposed skin. The way his perfect Carlos howled just made his heart melt.

Finally, he was allowed a break. Cecil pressed his face into his hair as his laughter died down. “You’re...You’re awful, you know that?”

“And you’ve been working past midnight since last friday,” he mumbled back.

“I know, I know, I promise it was important...I was gonna make it up to you, I swear.” He felt very threatened in Cecil’s still tight grasp. “I really can’t believe I fell for that at all...A Rib Thief?”

He felt Cecil laugh behind him. “I came up with it on the spot. Rib Thief...No, he comes to town every ten years. It’s only been eight.”

Oh.

“Whup!” He swept him up in his arms to carry him to bed. “We’re ordering in tonight, you’re all mine this weekend. You can tell me all about how things have been at work, and your experiments.” Drop.

Flop.

“Aw, come on, take your shoes off, you’re gonna get dirt on the comforter...Ceec!” He couldn’t help but giggle, the way Cecil started kissing his face. 

“Shoes!”


End file.
